Underneath the Obsession
by Skylark Evanson
Summary: Holiday gives Rex a copy of Edith Hamilton's book, "Mythology". She didn't know it would cause such an uproar in his life.


**A/N: So this has been on my mind for a while and I decided to finally get it up. I just couldn't figure out how to write it exactly. I found a way I liked and here it is. I hope you enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

* * *

**_Underneath the Obsession_**

Holiday dropped a book on the side of Rex's bed. The teen's mahogany tinted eyes fluttered open quietly as he pulled off one of the headphones that pumped music into his system. He did take a few moments to see what she had placed there before reaching up to turn off the music and putting the massive headphones around his neck. "What's this?" he asked, picking it up and looking it over.

"It's a book. Something teenagers your age would be reading right now if you were in a real high school." Holiday remembered her high school days fondly. Sure, she had been a nerd, but she had been a pretty one who always got asked to the dances and such. "It's a good one, Rex. You'd find a lot of stuff in there that you'll like. Tons of kids like mythology."

"Like Hercules and stuff?" he asked, raising one eyebrow as he looked up at the doctor. He actually flipped through the pages for a few moments, taking in some of the words. He was glad he hadn't lost his memory of how to read back when he was ten. That would've been a nightmare.

The doctor just nodded quietly. "That's right. He's not mentioned as much as the gods are, but he's in there." She was feeling proud of herself. She actually felt like she was doing something that would benefit Rex. Or at least something that would benefit him in life instead of benefiting him only to help Providence as well. "Consider it as the beginning of your high school education."

He gave her a weak smile. "Thanks, Holiday."

Without any response other than returning his smile with her own, she left the room; the door shut tightly behind her. Holiday had a good feeling Rex would actually read this book instead of play baseball with it like he had all the others.

* * *

"Hey, Doc?" asked Rex, walking into her office one day as she worked intently on her paperwork. His voice was clearly almost sure of something, but she could read his features the second she looked up into the boy's face. She knew him too well. He was just checking on something. "How do you say this word?"

The doctor took the book from his hands and read the word over and over a few times. The hard part was, she used to know this book by heart. She had forgotten the one thing that connected this book to Rex in more ways than one. Her stomach twisted into knots. "Circe."

"I knew it," he breathed softly, running one hand through his spiked hair while the other took the book back from Holiday. His eyes seemed to glitter with that sudden intrigue that meant either something dangerous or something in him was just inspired. "Thanks." Then he was gone, his feet thrumming against the floor as he raced off back to his room to keep reading it. He wanted to read more.

The doctor put her hand on her forehead. How could she have missed that? How could she have forgotten the mentions of Circe the witch in Edith Hamilton's book? She put her head on her desk, feeling foolish for forgetting about it.

* * *

"Holiday?" asked Rex, walking into her office again just the next day. The woman's eyes lifted from another file of paperwork that analyzed the DNA makeup of EVOs that could generally control their abilities with conscious actions. "Can… Can you do me a favor?"

Something wasn't right and she could see it in him. Rex was generally easy to read for the doctor. She knew him better than he knew himself in most cases. That was what sort of scared her when he was asking her for a favor. How often did he ever ask favors?

"Yes?" she said, sea foam green eyes finding his hopeful face and those gleaming eyes. "What is it, Rex?"

At this point, she was almost afraid to ask. He hadn't wanted to come out of his room yesterday. He hadn't wanted to go anywhere. He hadn't wanted to eat lunch even. It was hard on Holiday to even get him to talk to her. He had been so enveloped in that book that Rex had hardly even been responsive.

"Could you get me a copy of 'The Odyssey'?"

She had worried about this once before. She was worried that he would want more. Maybe it was the Circe thing going to his head or maybe he just really loved mythology. The woman toyed with a strand of dark hair that had escaped her bun. "Rex…"

His eyes had turned desperate in a nanosecond. "Please, Holiday?" he asked, sounding truly pitiful in his begging for a copy of the ancient story by Homer. "This mythology stuff-"

"Alright," said the doctor, hoping she wasn't getting herself in too deep by promising another book to the teenage EVO. "I'll get you one." The woman watched the boy as his face lit up excitedly with an eager smile and eyes glittering hopefully.

He was gone after calling "Thanks!" back to her.

Holiday just hoped she hadn't dug her grave too deep yet.

* * *

"I know I'm bothering you _waaaayyy_ too much, but can I ask another question?"

Holiday looked up again. Rex had only had his copy of 'The Odyssey' for two days and he was already done with it after fervently reading it through the night. She had caught him with his light on last night after a routine check on him and Bobo to make sure they hadn't gotten out. "I believe you just did," she answered with a soft, weak smile, "but I'll let you ask another one too."

Rex smiled too much for his own good. "Um, so I was reading through this and there wasn't anything about Circe in this one, but it said in the other one that she was in this book, but I didn't see anything about her in here…"

The doctor's smile fell off her face. So it wasn't just a dedicated love of mythology. It was about Circe. It was about the sorceress of the books all along. But why would he have such a fascination with an ancient witch? Why did it matter? Just because the girl he loved shared the same name?

With a hopeless sigh, she said, "Check Book Ten. She should be in there. I believe the title of the book was 'The Grace of the Witch' and Circe is spelled with 'k's instead of 'c's." The doctor let out a soft breath, suddenly worried for Rex.

The EVO teen was gone again in a flash, running back to his room, not even saying his usual "thanks" this time.

* * *

"Holiday," said Six, almost calling her name and asking for her attention, but not exactly, "I think you should see this." His voice was a bit more grave and serious than usual. And that was hard to beat. But the doctor easily noticed it. She knew the green-suited man all too well. "It's about Rex."

Instead of saying a word, Holiday followed Six with worried eyes. As they neared Rex's room, she saw the door was shut tightly and locked up with the keypad outside so that only Rex's palm could unlock it. But Six placed his hand upon the keypad and the door slid open to reveal Rex's room. "This is what he's been doing in here all this time."

The doctor stepped into the room to see it in total shambles. Circe's name was carved into all the walls with long scratch marks along them as well. The blankets of Rex's bed were strewn across the chair and the pillow was shredded on the ground, feathers seeping out of it like blood would seep out of a new wound. The mattress was splayed across the floor, springs emerging through the fabric that covered them up usually and some of it was shredded to bits. Rex was nowhere to be seen until the two actually walked in and looked at where the mattress, blankets, and pillow usually lay. And on the bed, or at least what was left of it, was Rex.

"Rex," breathed Holiday, the air catching slightly in her throat as she looked at the wreckage around the torn up room. Her eyes were in a panic as she stared at the destruction. "Rex, what happened in here?"

His dark eyes were peeled from the book in his hand, clearly opened to Book Ten as the pages were turned right to the middle of the book and Holiday could faintly make out the shape of the roman numeral ten. She knew something had to be wrong here. Not just because of the torn up room, but also due to the fact that he was just lying there on his stomach reading in all this rubbish of his nearly demolished room.

"Hey, Doc," he said with a normal smile on his face as if he were oblivious to all the destruction around him.

"Rex…"

"Hold on," he said, eyes flitting back to the book for a long moment. "It's Circe again." His face twisted up as he read it intently, eyes absorbed in the words that revealed the world of Odysseus for him.

Six gave Holiday a long look and raised an eyebrow, wondering if he should be doing something about this or not. "It's been like this for days. I called him yesterday for some training with Bobo and he never showed. I came in here and… this." The man wearing sunglasses nodded his head in the direction of Rex. "It's unhealthy, Holiday, even I can see that."

The doctor stared at Rex with heartbroken eyes, her heart sinking in her chest and her stomach twisting up in knots. "What have I done?"

"That's a good question," remarked Six, disappearing from the room. The last thing she saw of him was the back of his green suit as he vanished down the hall.

The green-eyed doctor made her way deeper into Rex's room. She could see scattered pages from the smaller book by Hamilton that she had given the EVO teenager previously. They were strewn about the floor, but the woman managed to find the cover and the few pages left in it. She could guess what pages were in it. "Rex…"

"Quiet," he breathed, voice close to a hiss as he continued to read through the pieces he loved, all of it featuring Circe.

"No, listen to me." Holiday sat on the side of his bed and ripped the book from his hands, tossing it across the room near the ripped apart mattress. She saw his face immediately twist up in rage and anger, but she was already speaking again before he could protest her kidnapping of his beloved book. "Rex, this isn't good for you. This is all myths and legends. It's not real." Her eyes narrowed at him as he moved to go retrieve his book for a short moment before she put a hand to his chest and pushed him back into the bed so he wouldn't get very far. "That Circe in there isn't the Circle out here."

Rex's rage seemed to boil in his eyes. She could see flames of fury glowing in those mahogany orbs. "You don't know that. Reincarnations and-"

"It's not real!" exclaimed Holiday loudly. "It's not real, Rex." Her eyes narrowed further, turning to slits. "She's out here. And if you start moving now, maybe you can help us find Van Kleiss and that'll help us find the real Circe alright?"

"I want her," said Rex, his head suddenly hanging as if upset with himself. She watched as he sat up and folded his legs. "I miss Circe."

"Just because her name is in a book doesn't mean it's her." Holiday put a hand on his shoulder softly and she couldn't help but feel the maternal emotions bubbling in her. "It's not Circe and it never will be the real thing."

Rex leaned his head on her shoulder, his eyes closed. "I want the real one."

"Come on, Rex," said Holiday, giving him a pat on the back before standing up and gazing at him with those soft sea foam green eyes. "I'll see what I can do to get her for you, alright?"

He looked up at her with a smile on his face. His expression was somewhat shocked, but he was grateful. "Really?"

"As long as you clean up all this," she said, pointing one finger around the room, "and throw away those books." She knew he was just a boy and that he was just a lovesick teenager that wanted someone to love him back and could be with him all the time.

He was immediately getting to work on it, but the walls remained marked up with the girl's name for weeks afterwards despite his efforts to scratch it away.

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**A/N: I was struggling near the end, sorry. It got hard… The whole Holiday and Rex mother son thing was hard… Reviews are welcomed!**

**~Sky**


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